Jane Austen

Emma Annotated Jane Austen

Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and romantic misunderstandings. It is set in the fictional country village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls and Donwell Abbey, and involves the relationships among people from a small number of families. Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like. In the first sentence, she introduces the title character as Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition... and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.